The River Lee

We set out from Limehouse basin on 7 August 2014 along the Limehouse cut to join the river Lee.  The river Lee is navigable for 27 miles up to Hertford with 18 locks.  At Hoddesdon (6 miles before Hertford) the river Stort branches off north east for 14 miles with 15 locks.


This is a map showing the rivers Lee and Stort.  Our trip up and down the Stort is covered in September under Buddy Walks The Plank (River Stort).

The Limehouse cut leaves Limehouse basin to the east and runs dead straight for a mile until it hits the river Lee at Bromley by Bow.  We had hoped to moor along this section so that Karen could pop into the office in Canary Wharf for the odd day but it was far too rough to think of leaving the boat even for an hour.

The London end of the river Lee also leaves a lot to be desired.  An amazing amount of litter on the tow paths around Hackney.  Lots of duck weed between Bow and Walthamstow; we had to stop four times one evening to remove weed from the propeller.

It was interesting going past the site of the 2012 Olympics and good to see that the Bow back rivers are being rejuvenated so that one day boats may be taken right into and around the Olympic park.

Here is the extent of weed through Bow, although coming back down in October it had all but disappeared.  It is said that spring and summer are the times to aoid the river Lee and its weed problems:

The largest tidal mill in the world was built at Bow in the 18th century and has been restored; very impressive.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom as there were some very pleasant stretches and we found plenty of places to moor away from roads, railways and houses (I’ve lost count of the number of photos of Karen sitting on the towpath with her slippers on!).

Here are some views of well known London towns from the river point of view:

When we were moored at Dobb’s Weir near Hoddesdon we managed to find a mooring right next to the car so handy for transporting stuff on board for our year out.

Going through Harlow we saw what must be one of the largest wind turbines erected on a boat:

At Sawbridgeworth we christened the washing machine to make sure there were no leaks and it worked OK - drying is going to be fun in the winter so I will be erecting an attachment on the tiller to take a rotary clothes line.

My youngest son, Jake, and his friend Tripti joined us on a rainy afternoon at Tottenham:

Ware and Hertford were nice places to visit and walk around and the gazebos at Ware were interesting.  These are covered in the Gazebos At Ware blog entry in September

These are the 18 locks on the river Lee, number one being at the far end in Hertford and number 18 in Bow.

From Paddington to Limehouse

In the last week of July we decided to move out of Paddington basin and cruise to Limehouse basin by Canary Wharf.  This is the whole length of the Regents canal - nine miles and 12 locks.  On the first day we went through Regents Park and the zoo, Camden, Islington and Kings Cross.  We also had two tunnels to go through; Maida Vale tunnel which is quite short (272 yards) and Islington tunnel (960 yards).

 

Camden was rammed full of tourists.  Many had their legs dangling over the sides of the canal and locks without realising the danger a heavy steel boat posed to their legs when I was trying to moor for locks.  I had to be quite forceful in a couple of instances to get people to move, especially a family of Germans.

Whilst going through the top lock at Camden I was asked if I could take part in a TV documentary being made about the Regents canal.  Of course I agreed.  This was the fourth time I had been filmed through London; the first time was by a French tourist who was keen to record about life on the waterways.  By the time I got to the Camden filming my story had many embellishments including the fact that we had been living on the boat for five years rather than the previous five weeks!  Here is the girl who interviewed me and the scouter who was finding people to be interviewed.

We went through seven locks and found a mooring alongside Victoria Park, or Vicky Park to the locals.  The Park is the oldest purpose built green space in London and, as the name suggests, was commissioned by Queen Victoria for the East Enders.  We stayed at Vicky Park for a week and made quite a few friends, especially as most boats had to double berth.  A lot of people were regular workers who found that living on a boat was cheaper than trying to buy or rent a flat in London.  Here are a few shots from that week.

We were amazed how many people had only just bought a boat and had moved aboard with no previous experience.  For example there was Jo, a teacher in the East End, whose boat was as old as ours and she knew needed completely refitting.  Robin and Jen had a new boat which was on the luxurious side; well he’s a KPMG consultant ;)  He works in Canary Wharf and Jen to the west of London so they commute by bike in opposite directions each day.  When we met them at Vicky Park Rob was having the shorter journey.

This article appeared in the New York Times recently and we had met people from four of the boats mentioned. Living on a boat in London (NY Times).

Writing about commuting reminds me about the extraordinary number of cyclists on the towpaths in that part of London in both rush hours.  You have to be really careful stepping off the boat!

We found a real spit and sawdust pub in Bow and saw a gig by Dennis Stratton (ex Iron Maiden) and a mate of his - excellent end to a Sunday - and no entrance fee.

We set out on the final leg to Limehouse on 6 August and the weather was still absolutely gorgeous.  It was very interesting going down through Mile End and other such areas.  At one point we realised we were running out of fresh chillies so I took a wander into the side streets of Mile End and got a handful of chillies for just 5p!

On the way down we had some good views of Canary Wharf and, of course, Barclays.

Here we are cruising into and around Limehouse basin.

And here are the 12 locks of the Regents canal:

 

 

And, finally, an Emperor dragonfly that landed on my finger when we were in Old Ford.